Hall is playing way off the flanker. There’s no one underneath to guard against the out. Landry creeps up to the line and starts to show blitz, but then tries to drop back at the last second but is way too late.

For the first time that I have noticed, Banks runs backwards. It doesn’t go well. The Lions coverage team was coming hard up the middle and Roydell Williams and Byron Westbrook had failed to slow down the gunner to Banks’ left so he couldn’t make a break for the sideline.Washington Redskins at 14:04

Santana motions left to right but the Lions are in man so that draws another DB to the playside. Santana can only block one of the two DBs now out there so the corner is denied to Torain, forcing him to take it up the middle. The DT who stops him is free because both Rabach and Lichtensteiger, who initially doubled him, tried to shed off to pick up LBs.

Yet another line drive – when the Lions returner fields this there isn’t even a Redskins coverage guy on camera. There were two uncalled blocks to the back on this, but neither of the recipients of those blocks would have had an angle to catch the returner and there are uncalled blocks to the back on just about every long return you will ever see.

Johnson makes an easy catch on an in. Hall is there to wrap him up but he gets little help because Rocky and Landry both take bad angles and Johnson spins to the outside and away from them, then is just too strong and drags Hall into the end zone.

The line handles the four man rush alright, with the exception of Hicks who is beaten around his outside shoulder by Suh. He is bailed out by Torain who comes up to make a solid block. An LB had been keeping an eye on Torain in case he released into a pass route, but once he saw him commit to the block he came on a late rush. He would have been in perfect position to contain McNabb in the pocket, but instead of filling the gaping hole to McNabb’s right he tries to come up the middle and just gets tangled up with Rabach’s ongoing fight against a DT.

Lichtensteiger tries to get inside the DT to pin him to the the offensive left, but he is overwhelmed and carried down the line of scrimmage to fill the hole on the right. Meanwhile Suh drives Rabach into the backfield. This has the somewhat amusing effect of cutting off his own guy’s backside pursuit from RDE, as well as cutting off Cooley’s attempt to cut off that very same backside pursuit.

An easy screen. McNabb sells it well so the pass rush is coming hard and the coverage is clustered around the line of scrimmage, so the blockers have plenty of space in which to set up in front of Torain. Hicks cuts a LB while Rabach finishes him off, and Lichtensteiger takes out a DB to let Torain into the end zone untouched.

G.Gano extra point is GOOD, Center-N.Sundberg, Holder-H.Smith.

WAS 7 DET 7, 3 plays, 42 yards, 1:19 drive, 4:21 elapsed

G.Gano kicks 70 yards from WAS 30 to DET 0. S.Logan to DET 23 for 23 yards (R.Williams, M.Sellers). WAS-C.Horton was injured during the play. He is Out.

Detroit Lions at 10:39, (1st play from scrimmage 10:33)

1-10-DET 23 (10:33) (Shotgun) M.Stafford pass short right to N.Burleson to DET 23 for no gain (P.Daniels, L.Alexander). WAS-P. Daniels was injured during the play. His return is Probable.

Lorenzo Alexander runs through the block of the pulling RT to stuff the slot receiver on the quick pass.

A draw play, and Fletcher reads it immediately. Of note: Haynesworth lines up standing outside the LT, and shows solid hustle running behind the line and fighting through traffic to pursue the play from behind, although Fletcher gets to the guy first.

There’s not much to break down here. N’Damokung Suh is better at playing DT than Artis Hicks is at playing RG. It’s a straight one on one battle and it’s not even close. Suh gets past Hicks so fast that McNabb never even has a chance to escape.

So this is curious. Three of the Lions linemen line up (holy crap read that last bit out loud a time or two) to the right of Rabach’s right shoulder. Vanden Bosch is at LDE and has a very wide split a good yard or two outside of Trent Williams. Whether this is happenstance or a check at the line, the Redskins run into that gaping hole left by the line – the LBs are back in pass coverage and cannot compensate.

Jim Haslett apparently briefly switches teams, as the Lions line up Detroit lines up with only two down lineman. One guy with his hand in the dirt rushes to the outside, gets around Heyer, and forces McNabb to step up. The other DL lines up in the offensive left A gap and attacks Rabach. He, along with Vanden Bosch who lined up standing two yards off the line in the middle of the field, fully occupy Rabach and Hicks. Suh is standing and about a yard off Trent Williams. Trent gets caught planting his feet and is unable to adjust when Suh speeds past his left shoulder. He beats him to the inside despite being blatantly held from behind, and also runs through a chip from Keiland to end up right in the spot McNabb is trying to step up to.

Ok this is what happens when your defense is cute for the sake of cute. We’ve got Golston and Rocky with their hands down over the C and RG. Haynesworth is standing about 3 ½ yards off the RT. Rocky drops into pass coverage (that’ll blow their minds!) as Haynesworth tries to run across the formation and join Carter, Landry, and Rogers on an overload blitz from the opposite side of the field. Instead, Rocky just runs into Haynesworth. Bet it looked cool on the chalkboard though. Stafford is making a quick release anyway so such a slow-developing blitz had no chance to begin with, but fortunately Hall makes an excellent read of Stafford’s eyes and abandons his receiver to jump the route and knock it away.

2-6-WAS 15 (4:00) R.Torain up the middle to WAS 11 for -4 yards (T.McBride).

So I assume someone was supposed to block the LDE who came completely unblocked off the edge to stuff the draw. Instead Cooley was busy sealing his guy to the inside and Sellers ran past him to go looking for LBs.

Vanden Bosch is standing in the middle of the field again, but the Redskins have seen it enough times by now. When the DL over Lichtensteiger rushes to the inside he is passed off to Rabach and Hicks and Lichtensteiger picks up Vanden Bosch just fine, and Heyer does a stellar job against the RDE so McNabb has tons of time to wait for Armstrong to get open on the post.

OK this same thing has happened several times now. As is routine in zone blocking Trent Williams and Chris Cooley first double team the RDE. At some point one of them is supposed to shed off that block and pick off a LB at the second level, while the other continues the original block. Instead the both release, and the RDE is let into the backfield to force Torain to bounce it outside, unsuccessfully. This is starting to irritate me.

The screen fails colossally as Torain is taken to the ground before he can fight his way out of the backfield to take the pass. Fortunately the screen set up means Lichtensteiger is out there to throw a key block and allow McNabb the running room.

The pocket collapses immediately in the face of a blitz, and either Galloway forgets he’s the hot read, or he’s really not and McNabb just throws to him anyway. He doesn’t even turn his head, and a DB jumps the route for what should be a sure touchdown but drops it.

Haynesworth lines up standing and outside the LT. Orakpo is three yards off the line over the LG. Haynesworth attacks the LT and puts on a swim move to get past him, however getting beat so quickly actually frees up the LT to pick up Orakpo who is trying to cross behind Haynesworth’s back to rush from the outside. Meanwhile the LG is completely unoccupied due to the absence of real linemen, so he easily picks up Haynesworth.

Redskins generate pressure out of a four man front (ahem). Stafford steps up and escapes the pocket to the left. If he just keeps the ball he has an easy first down, but at the last second he sees that Calvin Johnson has broken off his route due to the scramble and has a couple steps on Landry. He tries to loft it to him, but Landry makes a great recovery after stumbling and barely manages to get back into the play and break up the pass.

2 comments:

Well done as always, but I remember the sack on McNabb at 8:00 ("Suh is better at DT than Hicks is at RG") and had an observation when the game broadcast ran the replay. Hicks tried to block Suh with his arms; he extended his arms too early and Suh swum back around him through the right-side A gap.The whole game, Suh was given the option to pass-rush on either side of his assigned lineman, more or less making him unblockable one-on-one in the same fashion Jim Schwartz used Haynesworth in Tennessee. Between him and Vanden Bosch, Detriot had two linemen who required a doubleteam to block--and Kyle Shanahan wasn't keeping in enough blockers to keep McNabb upright.

Staying Medium

This blog, originally founded in the heyday of the Jim Zorn era, is dedicated to countering the irrational euphoria or despair that follows every Washington Redskins win or loss by keeping the focus on the play on the field. You will find I often talk about the boring things like blocking and punting. That's because those things are important. You can email me at stayingmedium@gmail.com or find me on twitter at @staymediumblog.